- BROWN BOUNCES BACK, CONTENDERS RISE AT WEC

by Damon Martin – MMAWeekly.com
An early round of fights offered up three contenders that could vie for title shots in 2010 with Mike Brown leading the way as he picked up a crucial victory, as did Kamal Shalorus and Deividas Taurosevicius getting decision wins as well.

The taste of a loss did not sit well with the former WEC featherweight champion, Mike Brown, so less than 2 months after his last fight against Jose Aldo, he returned to winning form with a submission win over Anthony Morrison on Sunday night.

It didn’t take long for Brown to put Morrison on his back and start working to improve his position. Morrison tried to lock Brown up, but no matter what he did, the former champion willed himself into the mount, before taking his opponent’s back.

Brown immediately slipped his forearm underneath Morrison’s chin, forcing the tap out to the rear naked choke, early in the first round of the bout to move back into title contention.

“I just needed a win,” Brown said following the fight. “Jose Aldo is the champ and he’s the man. It will be interesting to see how Faber and Assuncao come out and the winner of that will probably get Aldo, and maybe I’ll get a shot in the future.”

It may not earn him a Gold Gloves title, but Kamal Shalorus threw bomb after bomb while standing and trading with Dave Jansen, handing the fighter the first loss of his career.

The Iranian born fighter winged shots at Jansen’s head time and time again, and while not technically sound, he was definitely throwing with bad intentions behind every punch. Shalorus also used his tremendous wrestling background to stuff any of Jansen’s takedown attempts, while hitting a few takedowns of his own.

“I know Dave Jansen is a good wrestler, but I’m a world class wrestler,” Shalorus proclaimed following the win.

Moving to 2-0 in the WEC, Deividas Taurosevicius was able to derail Mackens Semerzier after the featherweight picked up one of the biggest upsets of 2009 when he defeated Wagnney Fabiano in his last fight.

Using a strong wrestling base and mixing in some ground and pound, Taurosevicius put Semerzier on his back for the better part of the first two rounds, left only to defend and try to fend off strikes from above. Taurosevicius is now 8-1 in his last 9 fights, and could start gaining contender status in the featherweight division.